free-range politics, organic community

Portland

Since the weather was less than great for the last one, we're looking to have another with Cassiodorus, March 30th.

If you think you can make it let us know soon. It'll make a difference where we meet. If 5 are coming then we can meet in a coffeehouse that serves sandwiches. If there are 10 then we'll go to a brewpub or restaurant.

On February 10th, please join us for a C99 gathering at Pure Spice Chinese restaurant at 1:00 p.m. It is on the NE corner of SE Division and 87th Ave in Portland. The address is 2446 SE 87th Ave., 97216. They have a web site- purespicerestaurant.com

They have a large banquet room. I think we'll be comfortable in a corner of it.

Cassiodorus will be visiting our area. We plan a meet up for Sunday, February 10 at 1:00 p.m. Cass wants to learn about area, potentially move here. The meetup is planned to be at food court at Clackamas Town Center.

There have been a bunch of people who have said that the start of this month isn't going to be enough time, so with that in mind, I'd like to announce the 2nd PAC meetup. (The "SuperPAC" to mock a horrid political idea)

It will be on the 20th of August, at the Lucky Lab in Portland, OR at 12 Noon.

Mentioned this in the Open Thread, but I don't think anybody read it, so...

Meetup. It's post convention, last one was a blast and we need a nice place to vent. Lucky Lab was a blast last time, and it's nice and convenient for me, so I'm nominating it as the location once again.

Hey folks, this one's going to be fairly quick and fun. I've been talking with Portland area folks about a meet up for a while, and I think it's time that we finally took the steps to actually start organizing one.

Bernie Sanders had an omen of significance as a humble sparrow landed in front of Bernie on his podium while addressing a Portland, Oregon audience on Good Friday, 25 March, the last of the 3 holy days before Easter this year 2016.

Sparrows may have some symbolism, I don't know for sure, perhaps it means a triumph after a period of suffering.

You should meet Lucy Tidd. She is 8. It is unusual for such a young child to be scaring the bejeezus out of adults across the land.

Because looking at the behavior of those adults...adults who enough people judged to be sufficiently mentally competent that they elected them to public office, you'd think she was a serial killer.

It was the first day of third grade and 8-year-old Lucy was sitting in the principal’s office with her parents, crying her heart out. She was terrified. Mark and I sat with her and said: ‘This is your journey. We will go and do whatever you want.’ She had this blue bunny and she just held onto that and sobbed and sobbed. And then Mark carried her to the classroom.

--Briget Tidd

The scariest thing is that nobody knew except for the teachers. The kids saw Benjamin walk into school dressed like a girl, and they were like, ‘Hey, Benji.’ They were confused, but there was no malicious intent.

--Mark Tidd

Lucy didn’t relax until recess, when her mother helped a group of curious girls understand what was happening.

I said to them, ‘This is the same person you played with last year, that you played four square with, that you played jump rope with, that you ran around and played ball with. This is the same exact person.’ Only now, Benji wants to be just like you...like a girl.

--Briget Tidd

“I said, ‘Do you think that we can let her be herself and do this?’ ” Bridget asked the girls, who nodded in agreement. “Then the next thing I know they took her hand and they ran and that was it.”

I stood there with tears in my eyes, trusting that the rest of the day would be OK, and I let her go. And at that moment she was completely free, and we’ve never turned back.

I grew up just about two miles, as the crow flies, or as the child finds a path through what we called the Creek, from Lewis and Clark College. My older brother matriculated there, played basketball for them in the late 60s for awhile. One of my major life heroes, William Stafford, taught English there for many years while I was growing up.

So it has been a major blow to me to discover that this past weekend at least two hate crimes occurred on the campus in the span of a couple of hours.